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Judge Samuel Bufford elected to the American Law Institute

March 29, 2013

Judge Samuel Bufford elected to the American Law Institute

Judge Samuel L. Bufford, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Penn State Law, has been elected to the American Law Institute (ALI), the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law.

Made up of 4,000 distinguished lawyers, judges and law professors, the Institute drafts, discusses, revises and publishes Restatements of the Law, model statutes and principles of law that are extremely influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.

“The work of the ALI requires the most accomplished and respected lawyers, judges and scholars, and we are always looking for the intellectual leaders in every area of law. We are honored to be joined by these new members,” said ALI President Roberta Cooper Ramo in a press release announcing the names of the 40 newly elected members.

“The work we do simply would not be possible without members who generously give of their time because of the importance of our projects. I am confident this new group will make tremendous contributions to ALI's work for years to come,” Ramo said.

Bufford is a former United States Bankruptcy Judge in the Central District of California, where he served for 25 years and presided over nearly 120,000 cases. Widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars of U.S. and comparative insolvency law, his teaching interests include bankruptcy, international and comparative insolvency law, commercial transactions and international business transactions. He teaches courses in insolvency law and consistently lectures throughout the year at numerous seminars sponsored by foreign judicial departments and domestic institutes.

Bufford serves on the editorial advisory boards for the International Insolvency Review and the West Annual Review of International Insolvency. In 2010, he joined the academic advising group to the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements.